Importance of Agile Tools in Agile Process Implementation

Posted on:

August 5, 2015

We all know how greatly the agile Methodology has impacted the software development industry. The agile methodology has been able to deliver results far better than the traditional methodologies such as the waterfall model. This is the reason why many companies and professional all around the world are adopting it. It seems quite an easy decision to implement the agile process but what can become really tricky is how to implement it in the best possible way.
If you put in too much processes then it may give birth to bureaucracy while the opposite can really limit the productivity. Most of the Agile Process professionals would unanimously agree that the key to an organization’s successful Agile implementation is the correct mix of tools, processes and people. So what can really ease out this whole task of agile process implementation?
The answer to the above question is tools adoption. Well if you see how the Agile process gets implemented in any organization then first they have a vision or a goal like how will Agile help the organization. After this they address 5 questions which are –
What will be the architecture of the Agile Process?
What roles and responsibilities would be taken by which participants?
What resources would be needed for the successful implementation?
What processes will be adopted for the Agile solutions?
And then finally….. What tools would be used and how would they be implemented?

Now coming up with a consensus on these could be a really time consuming and tricky process. So what can be done is that one should come up directly to the last question and decide on which tools should be adopted and how they can be best implemented.
Some might think the other way but this can well save a lot of time in the whole Agile process implementation work. When you have a vision and then you can know which tools you would need to adopt to fulfil that vision. So why not come directly to it.
Now let’s take an example of defining your architecture just after your vision. If you do so in the start then after finalizing the tools you would have to later tweak and alter your architecture to match with the tools. So it makes no sense. But when tools are finalized then rest all can be planned so as to make the best combination of tools, people and processes. Which is the key to successful Agile transformation.
So what going this way can do is that it will simplify the whole adoption process, would save on time, would eliminate the later tweaking and altering of previous decisions and would also make sure that the organization gets the Agile methodology adopted in the best possible way. It actually helps in answering a lot of difficult questions which go unanswered during the traditional way of implementing the Agile process. The tool adoption would answer questions like how were things done in the past, how we want to do things now and how would the things be done in the future.
So going this way is lot more practical and is a more involved approach of agile process implementation.